The Cambridgeshire Target Shooting Association has lost a Charity Tribunal appeal to be formally recognised as a charity on the basis that shooting is not active enough to be considered a sport with public benefit.
The Charity Commission first rejected the association’s request for charitable status in February 2015, when it ruled that “it has been sufficiently demonstrated that the activity promotes health".
“Accordingly it could not be considered charitable either under the advancement of amateur sport or the promotion of community participation in healthy recreation,” it said.
The Cambridgeshire Target Shooting Association’s (CTSA) First Tier Tribunal appeal was heard in September, but the decision report was published last month.
It rejected claims that shooting promotes health.
During the appeal, Chris Knight, solicitor for Hewitsons LLP, representing the CTSA, called for shooting to be viewed “holistically” in deciding whether it promoted health by involving a physical or mental skill.
He argued that shooting was a “level playing field” which disabled or elderly participants could enjoy alongside able bodied people. The CTSA should achieve charitable status on the basis that the activity required meditative endurance, focus and coordination, which helps promote health, in accordance with the Charities Act 2011, he said.
But the submission was rejected by the appeal.
“These activities have not been shown to have any physical skill or exertion such as to promote general health,” the report said.
Today the CTSA said the decision was a “great shame” for the organisation and the sport of target shooting.
“In spite of good evidence, expert opinion, and legal argument, the Tribunal was not persuaded to overturn the Charity Commission’s decision,” the association’s secretary Sandra Haskett told Civil Society News.
“We will be denied the very significant tax and other advantages of charitable status which are granted to a very wide range of sports. As target shooting is accepted as a sport by Sport UK and the IOC, this does seem very inconsistent and unfair.”
Haskett said CTSA would continue to “explore other options to achieve some of what we hoped for”.
In a statement this morning the Charity Commission said it was “pleased to note the decision of the First Tier Tribunal in rejecting in the appeal that target shooting can be recognised as charitable as the advancement of amateur sport for the public benefit”.
“The judgement provides guidance for the first time from the Tribunal about the extent to which health benefits arising by way of physical or mental exertion must be demonstrated to justify any sport or game as charitable,” the regulator said.
